


let’s fall in love for the night (and don’t forget in the morning)

by romulus_adhara



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Jaeil - Freeform, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, bc I can’t, but it’s just weed I mean, but there’s not much college tbh, can you believe there’s no angst, friends to friends in love, jaeil are tagged but fuck knows what’s happening there, johnmark, johnmark are cute and affectionate, k i n d a, kinda smutty but not too explicit, one day I’ll write a gossip girl au and then you’ll see, rich kids and their punk friends, taeten - Freeform, taeten are dumb and in love, this is cheesy and dumb and cheesy I warned ya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 13:00:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18052955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romulus_adhara/pseuds/romulus_adhara
Summary: They’re friends. The very best, someone might even say.Five times Ten and Taeyong fall in love for the night, and one time they don’t forget it in the morning.





	let’s fall in love for the night (and don’t forget in the morning)

**Author's Note:**

> finneas — let’s fall in love for the night  
> give it a listen to get in the mood, but if you can’t — it’s a song about two people who fall in love for a little while. they somehow fit together even though they’re not supposed to, and they don’t really want it to stick, but the night is still here so they fall in love to forget it in the morning. 
> 
> (I miss taeten okay? really fucking miss taeten. I miss them. where are they. can they please feed their mother.  
> this is short and sweet and kinda doesn’t make any sense and maybe I shouldn’t write anything ever again but hey. at least nobody dies in this one!)

Ten and Taeyong are friends. 

Everybody knows that. 

Some may even say they’re best friends, and Johnny pouts when they point that out because he’s been the one who met Ten back in the kindergarten, but then Ten throws an unlit joint at him and says that the only reason he got so close with Taeyong is Johnny himself falling head over heels for the guy from Taeyong’s Biology class and the pouting stops in favor of the said guy throwing his tiny body on Johnny’s lap to make out with him. They all cringe because Mark and Johnny are disgusting but what can you do when it’s “young love”.

It’s Jaehyun saying this, his eyes glazed over and his lips pink and wet from all the times he’s licking them, and someone passes him a soda because he’s thirsty, and the whole Ten and Taeyong debacle stops for a few days until they get high and intrigued again. 

Because here’s the thing. 

Ten and Taeyong are friends but they are the people you would least expect to be associated with each other.

Ten drives an old bike he picked up on a dumpster and fixed up, he smokes cigarettes that make Taeyong want to retch, and you won’t catch him dead in something out of the black and grey palette. He’s a bad boy, the worst of them, if you believe his own words, but he doesn’t bother with being a bully or failing his grades. He just doesn’t give a fuck. He’s always attending but he won’t pass up on an opportunity to skip a class or two to go get high behind the buildings, and he always stays out late even when they’re not partying because it’s an old habit, he says — back when he was still living with his parents, he dreaded going home to fake smiles and disappointed looks, and now his body rejects even an idea of sleep before one in the morning. Ten smiles like he just pulled the biggest prank, picks at his ripped jeans with his nails covered in cracked black polish, and has a tattoo he refuses to show anyone. Ten isn’t bad company but he’s the one Taeyong’s social circle always warned him against. 

Taeyong drives to college in a black Porsche that he secretly hates because it shows everyone around him what family he comes from but it was a gift so he _has_ to use it. Taeyong isn’t used to drinking but he always downs a beer or two when Taeil is supplying because Taeil likes when Taeyong is drunk and Taeyong likes when people like him for something apart from his inheritance. Jaehyun says it’s unhealthy — how he’s showing off, but then Taeil smiles at him with another bottle already open in his hand, and Jaehyun promptly shuts up. Taeyong is quiet but not shy because he’s just more of an observer than a participant — apart from the times Ten is there. Taeyong dresses in pastel colors and blushes when Ten throws his leather jacket on him, and he scrunches up his nose from the mix of cigarette smell and Ten’s cologne, but nobody will ever know that he actually likes it, and he only does it because he knows Ten thinks it’s cute. Taeyong cares about what other people think of him, and he likes to be liked, and Ten rolls his eyes at that but always protects Taeyong when someone else tries to make fun of him. Taeyong isn’t particularly happy his parents are rich but he isn’t above using their money to fund their parties, because he doesn’t know how else to spend it and Johnny always has ideas. Their entire friend group met exactly because at some point in the past Johnny got an idea. They’re close now, the borders of different social statuses and bank accounts sizes non-existent — because they have a rule about nobody asking questions as long as the others aren’t being dicks. The only exception is Ten but nobody minds because he’s a kind dick, and he always sticks out for the people he cares about, and they know he’ll never joke about something that can actually hurt them. 

That's probably why Taeyong looks at Ten the way he would at a hoard of baby chicks playing in the dandelions. 

But they don't talk about it. 

Because here’s the thing — Ten and Taeyong are friends. But they would probably be much more a long time ago if they weren’t people from worlds so different it's a big surprise their paths even intertwined. Taeyong’s parents aren’t forcing him to date someone _they_ want but Ten is still exactly the type of boy they hope Taeyong will avoid. 

There’s no drama. No tragedy. Taeyong isn’t even sure Ten likes him that way but he won’t ask because Ten isn’t saying anything himself and there’s no point in learning something that will hurt him anyway. It’s a bit sad because Ten makes his insides clench and rattle like the China in that cabinet he almost overthrew when he was seven, but he thinks about it as a preemptive strike — they won’t work anyway. Taeyong likes him, and they’re friends, and it’s all okay. 

Until it isn’t. 

“You’ll have what, excuse me?” Ten blinks four times, his cigarette dangling from his lip. Taeyong watches how it slowly burns out, the paper turning to ash without Ten taking a drag. He’s suddenly nervous. 

“A boyfriend,” Taeyong repeats, kneading his palms and chuckling. “Well, it’s not like that. Dad just wants us two to appear alongside each other for a few pap pics. It’s good for the rep.”

“Selling out his son will boost his rankings?” Jaehyun asks skeptically from where he’s sprawled on the floor, his eyes red. He has barely slept since Tuesday, and it’s Saturday, and he’s high as a kite with coffee running in his bloodstream, but at least his term paper is done. He takes a drag and passes the joint back to Johnny. 

“No.” Taeyong pouts. He knows Jaehyun gets it, because their parents come from the same circle, to the point where, technically, Jaehyun and he are distant cousins, but for some reason, Jae is being a little shit. “But having his gay son be out and proud will.”

There’s a collective groan, and he sighs with a frown. Ten still isn’t saying anything, staring at a mole on Taeyong’s neck. 

“Shut up, you know my dad is a cool dude!” He exclaims, feeling anxious and a little panicked. “Both of my parents are. They support me, and I won’t break if I do this little thing for them.”

There’s a loud crack, and Mark appears in the doorway, his entire tiny frame fuming with anger. He closes the door, ignoring the dent in the wall he made from throwing it open so hard, and comes inside the room. It’s Johnny’s, and they’re only at the dorm because it’s the safest place to smoke weed at when three of you are trust fund babies. 

Mark throws his bag under the couch and his own body — on Johnny, wrapping his limbs around him like an octopus and pressing his face into his hood to let out a bloody scream. There’s a stoned silence, misty weed smoke thick in the air around them. 

“How was your day, baby?” Johnny asks cautiously, petting his back with his eyes careful. 

Mark leans back to look at them all with the most indignant expression he can master. 

“My fucking parents want me to pretend to date some fucking twink because it’s going to be good for the rep!” He seethes, sending them into another silence, but this time it breaks far sooner — with Taeil snorting on the floor next to Jaehyun and rolling on his side to laugh into Jaehyun’s shoulder. 

“It’s not funny!” Mark huffs, frowning like a baby raccoon. 

“Aren’t they whipped for Johnny?” Jaehyun drawls, his hand lazy on Taeil’s waist. Fuck knows what’s going on there. 

“They are.” Mark sniffs. “I think they like him more than they like me. But he’s not from a famous family, so until I’m graduated, I need to be seen with some rich twink.”

Johnny doesn’t look particularly happy about the whole situation but he’s perplexed, just like all of them, because it’s too much of a coincidence to be one. 

“Mark,” Taeyong calls out with a sigh. “It’s me. I’m the twink.”

Mark stares at him, his eyes wide, until he presses his face into Johnny’s hood again and screams some more. Ten finally moves after five minutes of being frozen to put his cigarette out and crack his neck. He leans forward with his elbows on his knees and laughs quietly, and Taeyong watches his back with dread. 

“Well. That’s gonna be fun.” He cackles and goes on the floor to take the joint from Taeil. He doesn’t look at Taeyong. 

This is fine. They’re friends. 

+1

It’s some loud party and Mark drags him outside to smoke and get papped, and they laugh like idiots because the paps are really failing at looking inconspicuous, and Taeyong puts his hand on Mark’s shoulder to give them something credible for the tabloids, and they smile at each other playfully, but there’s nothing to it but alcohol and fun. Mark got over his distaste for the whole ordeal, and now they’re making the most of it, and Taeyong is drunk, and Ten isn’t here. 

“He’ll come,” Mark murmurs, his eyes drunk and sleepy. “He promised.”

Taeyong pouts and chuckles and bites his lip, and he’s dizzy as fuck, and they’re just friends, but Mark _knows_. Mark knows, but he is a good polite boy so he stays silent and grabs Taeyong’s bicep to drag them inside. 

It’s dark and hot, sweaty bodies around him making him want to either leave or drink more, but he stays put, moving his body and hoping nobody will grind against him, and he closes his eyes and allows himself to be a little sad, because Ten promised to be here and he still isn’t. 

That thought doesn’t have time to settle because there’s someone up in his face and he opens his eyes to look angrily at the tall guy who’s smiling way too smugly for it to be attractive, and Taeyong scrunches up his nose, shaking his head, but the guy is still there, and he sighs, getting ready to move elsewhere. 

But then there are hands on his waist and familiar smell, and he smiles, leaning back into Ten’s chest, wrapping his fingers around his as he watches the guy back off with an apologetic smile, and he turns around, his blurry vision focusing on Ten’s nose. It’s a cute nose. 

“Thanks,” he slurs, smiling. They all have a good old gay tradition to get each other out of these situations in the clubs, but usually by this point Ten would have let him go with a nod, yet his fingers are still on Taeyong’s waist, slowly traveling lower to press against his pelvis bones, and he fucking likes it, but they’re not like that with Ten, and he should probably stop himself from leaning in to smell Ten’s hair. “You’re late.”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” Ten says with a sigh, his breath hot on Taeyong’s neck where he’s talking into his ear to be heard over the music beat. “Saw you and Mark outside earlier. You look natural.”

Taeyong laughs, his hands traveling from Ten’s neck to press into his shoulder blades, his fingers digging into his skin through the T-shirt. He wonders where Ten’s jacket is. He wonders if he could leave marks on his back. 

“It’s all a game,” he mumbles with a pout, looking over his shoulder to where Johnny is pressing Mark up against the wall, kissing the soul out of him, and he wonders if they should get them out of the club before it turns into an adult show. 

“Don’t you wish for it to be real?” Ten asks, looking the same way Taeyong does, something dark on his face. 

“Not with Mark, that’s for sure.” Taeyong turns around again to measure Ten with his eyes. “But it would be nice. To be someone’s… Something. I don’t know.”

He laughs to cover up his nervousness, the alcohol that Taeil poured into him mixing with his anxiety, but Ten looks too serious, and Taeyong looks down, suddenly scared of how close they are. 

“Are you a virgin, Taeyong?” Ten asks suddenly, and Taeyong chokes on air, looking everywhere but at his eyes, and how the fuck is Ten still calm in this situation — with their bodies pressed so close together, their faces inches apart, Taeyong being a blushing mess?

Oh right. Because Ten doesn’t have a crush on him. 

“No, I’m not,” he answers honestly and makes himself look Ten in the eyes. There’s no mockery or humor. He’s serious, and he’s definitely up to something. “Why are you asking, anyway? Wanted to help me check that one?”

He wants to make Ten as flustered as he is, but it doesn’t work, and it’s annoying to see how Ten just chuckles and shrugs a little. 

“If you wanted.” He tilts his head and smiles. “Just thought you may be lonely. Because you know, you have to pretend to be with Mark, and it sucks, but he has Johnny to go to when it’s over.”

“Well, I have you and Jaehyun,” Taeyong contradicts even though he knows it’s not the same. It’s not what Ten means, but Taeyong’s brain is too drunk to even try getting what exactly Ten means. “We’re friends.”

Ten laughs, but it’s not cruel, no, it’s that soft thing he has reserved exclusively for Taeyong’s antiques, and he tightens his grip on Taeyong and dances them through the crowd and outside through the back exit. They alley is cold and dark, but it’s pleasant, and Ten presses him against the wall and kisses his cheek. 

“Are we?” Ten asks softly, and Taeyong feels his insides go aflame from the way he smells and feels, and he’s sobering up way too quickly. “Friends?”

There’s noise from inside, and the paps waiting for him and Mark are just around the corner, and it’s not the way it’s supposed to go because he was never meant to be here in this dark alley with someone like Ten pressed against him in all the right places, his fingers on his neck, his breath on Taeyong’s lips, but the night is kind around them, covering them and protecting them from the world, their little secret in the making safe from the rest of the universe. 

“The very best,” Taeyong murmurs and closes his eyes, and he tugs on Ten’s hair, and Ten gets it.

The kiss is too sweet because that shit Taeil was feeding him was heavily mixed with syrup, and Ten smells of smoke, but it still feels better than everything Taeyong has ever felt in his life, and he giggles, feeling how Ten presses his fingers into his shoulders, because honestly why would Taeyong be laughing right now, and what the hell is even happening? Ten is powerful and all over the place, his energy pressing on Taeyong from every side, and he’s honestly enjoying it, but it’s still too fucking weird yet too fucking good. Ten breaks the kiss first, and Taeyong chases after him with his lips, and Ten laughs but leaves a few more pecks, and it’s fucking weird. 

“I’m drunk,” Taeyong says, resigned, and Ten frowns. “But like… Sober enough to know what I’m doing.”

“Yeah? What _am I_ doing, Tae?” Ten asks, suddenly too grim, and Taeyong pouts, shaking his head. 

“No, you’re not allowed to be sad!” He announces and hugs Ten tightly, his lumpy hands hanging off his shoulders. “This is nice.”

Ten wraps his hands around Taeyong’s waist and takes a deep breath, doodling invisible patterns on Tae’s skin, and it’s nice. He sighs and smiles. 

“Kiss me again,” he asks, and Ten complies, leaning back to hug his face with one hand and do what he asks — and this kiss is even better, and it heats up before Taeyong can regret it, and before he knows it, his hands are under Ten’s shirt, and he wants more, and it’s nice. 

“What are we doing?” Ten asks, and Taeyong snorts, and they both laugh. “No, seriously.”

“We’re friends.” Taeyong is stubborn, and he says it confidently and probably for a reason but he doesn’t know it. Ten looks at him with his eyebrow arched. 

“Friends don’t do this,” Ten points out, his own hands clutching at the hem of Taeyong’s designer shirt, the one he almost ripped when he tried to get his hands under it. 

Music is blasting from under the closed door, and he hears people in the street, and they’re young and stupid but he’s smart enough to know that this won’t work — they won’t work, and he’s not sad, he’s not. But the night is dark, and they’re talking shit, and Ten is exactly the boy Taeyong is supposed to avoid. 

“Then… Let’s fall in love for the night,” he murmurs with a wide smile, like it’s the biggest revelation ever, and he laughs at the way Ten looks at him, his smile crooked and amused. “And forget all about it in the morning.”

Ten laughs like an idiot and kisses him again, and they escape the party on his bike, and Taeyong feels like it’s all working out perfectly, because they’re immortal stupid boys, and the night is eternal, and even if it ever ends, he won’t be able to regret it. Ten takes him to his tiny apartment, and Taeyong knows it’s only temporary for him but he loves every inch of it because it all feels like Ten, and he smiles at the huge retro Captain Marvel poster as Ten kisses his stomach and undresses him, and some indie is playing on vinyl as he moans into Ten’s neck, and it feels so good to feel Ten inside of him that he forgets everything about his life for all the time they spend together. 

He falls in love with the way Ten’s face looks as he fights with sleepiness, and with the pattern of the moles on his back, and that tattoo that Ten always hides but shows to Taeyong because it’s hard to hide the ink on his chest when Taeyong puts hickies on it, and he falls for every nerdy piece of crap in Ten’s room, and he’s overwhelmed by the way they fit together, and he’s sober now but still blurry because that’s what being with Ten does to him. 

They fall asleep around five, and Taeyong closes his eyes against the sunrise and buries his face in Ten’s chest, and he smiles because he feels those silly thoughts disappear along with the darkness, and it’s all fine because Ten feels the same and they’re still friends, even best friends, as someone might say, and they fell in love for a night but now it’s gone, and he likes it. 

-2

It doesn’t change anything. 

Taeyong can’t really believe it, but literally nothing changes between them, and it’s freaking amazing, and he loves it — nothing hurts and he still has his amazing dick of a friend, and they still laugh at each other, and there’s no hidden meaning behind their smiles, and nobody in the group even suspects they’ve slept together. He doesn’t tell anyone, for some fucking reason wanting to keep it a secret, and he’s almost positive Ten didn’t either, but he won’t ask because the truth of what happened is as feeble as the light of dawn that separated them, and it’s their own little fairytale myth that will disappear if you talk about it out loud.

Taeyong is surprised at how chill he is about it. He’s not stricken with heartbreak or sadness, and he doesn’t want to drop anything and run into Ten’s arms, and his hugs still feel the same, and he generally doesn’t mean more than he did before it happened, and he didn’t lie when he said he’ll forget it in the morning — he did as he promised, and they moved on with their lives. 

Ten is still the same. His smile, his jokes, his clothes, his hands, his smell, his cigarettes, his skin — it’s still the same, and he is still his Ten, and Taeyong is ecstatic, he can’t believe his luck.

He’s riding this high of happiness for two weeks until Mark shows up at another one of their weed hangouts with a grim face and a pout, and they all go out to a big friendly dinner, and he sits next to Mark on the balcony, and they spot the paps and laugh at something with their faces way too close to be appropriate, and Ten is smiling softly at them, amusement in his eyes as Johnny is working on burning a hole through his plate, and they get drunk later at Taeyong’s apartment, and Ten and he are on the balcony laughing at something at three in the morning because all the beds inside are occupied, and there’s only a couch here outside, and they’re probably going to sleep here, and Ten looks at him with something dark, and Taeyong smiles and nods. 

Ten sucks him off with all the passion of a drunk punk on a Friday, and Taeyong doesn’t care if someone hears him inside the apartment, because he needs to moan as loud as he can if he wants to stay sane, and Ten drives him mad, and kisses his trembling lips, and it’s messy and hot and different from their first time but it’s still something too strong for two friends to share, and he wishes for the sun to come faster, and a song is blasting through the speaker on his phone, and Ten is a heavy but wonderful weight on top of him. 

“I know better than to call you mine,” Ten whispers the lyrics against his lips, and they laugh because yeah — they know better. 

The morning comes with the realization of what happened, but Taeyong still doesn’t feel any different, and they share a beer as they watch the sunrise, and nobody notices anything when they come inside way into the morning, stealing pancakes from Taeil and laughing at the way Mark is falling asleep on the kitchen counter, Johnny’s face smug. Someone found the outlet for their jealousy, Ten jokes, and Mark blushes, but they all laugh, and with every second they forget the confessions whispered against each other’s lips, and it’s all fine. 

-3

Another week passes, and the weather is getting hotter, and the summer is weeks away, and Taeyong wakes up with a thought that he wants to have a road trip. 

“Sick.” Jaehyun pops a lollipop into his mouth and twirls it around for a few seconds. 

“Who’s going?”

Taeyong crosses his legs on the couch and looks at Ten with a hopeful smile. Ten shrugs calmly. 

“The ones who don’t have any plans, I guess,” he drawls, and it’s clear as day that he’s one of those people but he won’t admit it first. His home situation isn’t the best but it’s one of those things they don't talk about. They’re best friends, but Ten asked him never to bring it up, so he doesn’t. 

There’s a murmur of stoned voices around the room, and Taeyong giggles as he realizes that his friends are all going to travel with him, and he eagerly throws himself into organizing the whole thing, and he makes Johnny help him because Johnny has ideas and Taeyong has money, and they concoct a weird fucking route and assign everyone a few cities to research for tourist spots, and Ten rolls his eyes and gives him shit, but Taeyong pouts at him, and so Ten sighs and writes his cities down. 

There’s a charity event that night, and he slowdances with Mark while their parents are smiling gratefully, and they exchange inside jokes, and Mark tells him his dad is ready to basically bless Johnny’s marriage to him because he’s being such a good boy, and Taeyong smiles but later goes out to get a breather and texts Ten. 

_the thing with my parents is they will allow me to marry whoever I want. I guess I just don’t know how to ask them. and who to ask for._

When he gets back home, there’s a familiar bike parked against the building, and Ten is on the windowsill smoking and waiting for him, and they don’t say anything as he opens the door, and he tastes smoke on Ten’s neck, and it’s bitter and he hates it, but he still sucks on it get Ten breathless and pliant, and he asks him to leave the leather jacket on as Ten fucks into him against the wall, and he enjoys the way his back hurts from Ten grinding him on the wallpaper, and he thinks — when in the morning I forget I fell in love with you again, at least my skin will remember. 

-4

The fourth time they sleep together happens after he spends a day on the yacht with his parents and Mark, and it’s a nice day apart from Ten ignoring his texts and being moody when they meet in the evening for drinks, and when Ten goes out for a smoke, Taeyong can’t resist it and unlocks his phone — and yes, he knows his password — and the last thing Ten was looking at is an article on some shitty newspaper website, and the picture is Taeyong’s smiling mug as he looks at Mark, and Ten won’t know it but it was the moment they were remembering the way Ten can dance but always hides it, pretending he doesn’t have any sense of balance, and Taeyong locks the phone and goes to Ten, and everybody is asleep in a big pile already, so he doesn’t try to be cautious when he takes a cigarette out of Ten’s fingers and kisses him, making him sit down on the couch and taking a drag, and throwing the cigarette over the railing and unbuckling Ten’s belt to try and forget how shitty it feels to imagine Ten being alone, looking at that picture and thinking that there is something that Taeyong loves more than him. 

He’s not very experienced at blowjobs, but Ten seems to like it anyway, and when he comes with his hand trembling in Taeyong’s hair, Taeyong licks his lips and lights up a cigarette. Ten is a bad boy, they say, but they don't know the soft rattle of his post-orgasm voice, and they don't know how he tastes when Taeyong kisses him, and they will never know how it feels to fall in love with him for a night and forget in the morning. 

Ten drags him on his lap, and Taeyong gasps into Ten’s mouth as he jerks him off, and it feels like more than a simple favor between friends, and he refuses to think about them as friends with benefits, because they’re more, as long as the night is dark — they’re more. Ten tells him he loves him, and Taeyong says it back, and they’re friends. The very best of them. 

The sun goes up, and they make morning milkshakes, and Taeil has bruises all over his neck, and Jaehyun looks stoned as usual but slightly smug, and they don’t comment on that. Ten passes him the maple syrup bottle and they all laugh at the morning news, and nothing changes. 

The way Taeyong’s heart skips a beat when Ten laughs, his teeth peeking out as he lets out a high-pitched giggle — it’s still the same. The way Ten looks at him with amused warmth and tilts his head in affection when Taeyong pretends two bagels are his glasses — it’s still the same. They’re still the same. 

-5

The term is over, and they’re all packed up, and they’re supposed to start the trip tomorrow morning, and it’s the last outing before they leave and their parents get off their backs. 

It’s a graduation party, and they’re not supposed to be here, but they still sneak in because they’re young and rich and can do whatever the fuck they want, and they dance on the table, making sure someone records them to show it to the press, and it hits Twitter before they even get home, and Mark asks him why they did it, and Mark fucking knows — so Taeyong stays silent, and Mark sighs as his driver drops him off at Ten’s apartment, because Taeyong isn’t stupid — he cracked the pattern, and Mark tells him to figure it out because the trip will get fucked up otherwise, and Taeyong sighs and tells him it’s not like that. 

They’re not Mark and Johnny, and they don't need confessions and consistency. They’re Ten and Taeyong, and they’re friends. 

Ten is sad when Taeyong undresses him, and Frida Kahlo stares at him from the wall as he grinds on Ten while they’re making out, and he closes his eyes in annoyance, hoping Ten’s body will cover everything from view, because nothing else matters anyway. 

He allows Ten to wear him down, and they get tired and rest, and then fuck again, because there’s something urgent this time, and he asks Ten to bruise his hips, and he screams and shouts, and they go at each other for hours until the sun is long up, and when Ten kisses him and bites his lips and feverishly whispers “I love you”, they both forget he broke the rules. 

They both ignore it because they fell in love for the night — and maybe they forgot to forget it in the morning. 

+1

It’s some old dingy motel because they fucked up with the gas situation and had to stop in some retro-looking little city, and Mark and Johnny call dibs on the room closest to the ice machine, and Jaehyun and Taeil just silently get another one, and Ten looks at Taeyong in a way that stops him from caring about anything else in the world. 

They’ve done this before. It’s not their first time, and they both know how it goes, and how everything is allowed as long as they agree that the morning erases everything. 

Something is different tonight, though. 

They sleep together. As in — just lie there together, cuddling and playing with each other’s fingers. 

“The first time I saw you,” Ten says quietly, and it’s different. Taeyong won’t forget this one. “I knew I’ll never get to be yours. But I wished I would be good enough to at least be in your life.”

Taeyong closes his eyes and sighs, and it’s bitter and sad but he still says it. 

“I’ve been crushing on you since that time you fell off your bike and said that gravity was just too enamoured with you.” Ten laughs, and Taeyong feels the vibrations of his chest with his ear, and maybe he’s in love with him. 

“This is dumb.”

It is, and they’re dumb, and Taeyong climbs on top of him and kisses the shit out of him, and it’s not because he made him jealous by going out with Mark, or because he’s sad and lonely, or because he’s drunk, or because he’s confused and lying to himself. He kisses him because it’s the place he wants to be in, and the guy he wants to be kissing, and Ten is exactly the boy he should avoid, but honestly — fuck that noise. 

“Let’s fall in love,” he whispers, and Ten grips his thighs, and bites his lips, and laughs into his mouth. 

“And don’t forget in the morning,” Ten murmurs back, and he takes Taeyong’s shirt off, and kisses his stomach, and Taeyong knows it’s for real. 

His parents will purse their lips but support his choice, and they’ll tell the others about them, and Mark will be happy he doesn’t have to pretend not to know anything anymore, and they’ll kiss whenever they want to, and Taeyong won’t care if it’s night or day, and he knows now why nothing ever changed — because he never stopped being in love with his dick of a best friend, and he feels now just like he always did — like a smitten idiot, and Ten leaves confessions and vows in his skin, and Taeyong smiles as he watches the sunrays peek inside the room, and he throws his head back on the pillow. 

This time, they won’t forget. 

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on [twitter ](https://twitter.com/romulusadhara)  
> [come yell at me as anon](https://curiouscat.me/romulusadhara)


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